answer:I agree, this is bad practice. All signs point to the fact that Apple wanted to ship ringtones on day one for all iTunes customers, but that licensing issues with the record labels prevented them from implementing this is the software—regardless of where the track came from. As a plus side, there is a little publicised feature hidden in Garageband, that allows you to export a track as an iTunes ringtone, provided the original track is unprotected. If you have a Mac, you can try this out. In addition, if you Google for “make an iPhone ringtone” and dig through the results, you will find ways to circumvent the process (I don’t think Apple are that bothered). It’s a real shame, Apple are often criticised for not allowing this for free, and for what it’s worth I’m sure it would be free if the labels hadn’t have stepped in. Hope this helps.